The good folks over at LentMadness.org have just posted the calendar for the 2012 Round of 32. Here are the dates for the contests I care about most, so mark these on your calendar and be sure to get over there and VOTE:

– This Thursday will determine whether Joan of Arc makes it to the Saintly Sixteen. If you haven’t yet read Sady Doyle’s amazing telling of Joan’s story, go do it now — especially if the last time you read anything about her was in elementary school. (Brace yourself, though, it’s a hard story to read.)

– Next Monday, 27 Feb, will feature the Harp of the Holy Spirit, Ephrem of Edessa, versus that hereticseparated brethren fellow Thomas Cranmer.

– The very next day is our chance to defend Mary Magdalene against yet another man who (given when he lived) probably thought she was a prostitute.

– Then on Thursday, we’ll start March off right with a rousing defense of the Apostle Thomas, commonly denigrated as “Doubting”, but surely the patron saint of scientists and skeptics of all sorts.

I’ve got preferences for most of the matchups, but these are the ones that really matter. So mark your calendars and be sure to VOTE!

The match-up that really bothers me is March 5th contest of Augustine vs. Monica (or, as they pretentiously spell it — “Monnica.” If we are going with original spelling, should the match up on March 14 include “Saul of Tarusus”?)

That’s just rude, making a man run against his mom. And, of course, it creates an internal conflict — are we chivalrous and vote for the fellow’s mum or are we literary and vote for the son?

I admit I’m amused by the Monica vs Augustine matchup: it seems not unlike their lives when he was young, as she chased him all over the world to try to get him to settle down and live a good Christian life.